the strange situation evaluation

Question 1

what does it mean when we say that the strange situation has support for validity

Answer 1

attachment type as defined by the Strange Situation is strongly predictive of later development

Babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas, ranging from success at school to romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood

Insecure- resistant attachment is associated with the worst outcomes including bullying in later childhood (Kokkinos 2007)) and adult mental health

This evidence for the validity of the concept because it can explain subsequent outcomes

Question 2

how is the Strange Situation a reliable measurement of attachment - how does it have good validity

Answer 2

the strange situation shows very good inter - rater reliability
- in other words, different observers watching the same children in the Strange Situation generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with

This is because the stranger situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the behavioural categories are easy to observe

Bick et al study proves this and shows that the attachment type of an infant identified in the Stranger Situation does not just not depend on who is observing

Question 3

what was Bick et al study

Answer 3

In a recent study, Bick et al (2012) looked at inter - rater reliability in a team of trained Strange Situation observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies

Question 4

the test may be culture bound - why is this a limitation

Answer 4

There is some doubt about whether the Strange Situation is culture bound test

i.e. does not have the same meaning in countries outside Western Europe and SA

This is for Two Reasons:

1.cultural differences in childhood experiences are likely to mean that children respond differently to the Strange Situation

2. caregivers from different behave differently in the Strange Situation
   e. g. Takashi (1990) carried out the Strange Situation in Japan

Question 5

what was Takashi’s study

Answer 5

Takashi (1990) has noted that the test does not really work in Japan because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated form their babies that, as we would expect, there are very high levels of separation anxiety

Also in the reunion stage Japanese mothers rushed to the baby and scooped them, meaning the child’s response was hard to observe

Question 6

what does the strange situation actually measure

Answer 6

• it measures the child’s respponse to the anxiety produced by being in an unfamiliar environment

However, what is more controversial is whether the main influence on this anxiety as attachment, as Ainsworth assumed

e.g. Jerome Kagan (1982) has suggested that in fact temperament, the genetically influenced personality of the child, is a more important influence in behaviour in the strange situation than attachment

It means that temperature may be a confounding variable and decreases the validity of the strange situation